David Barzelay and Colleen Booth, known for the two-Michelin-starred Lazy Bear, are opening JouJou, their new French restaurant, on March 6 in San Francisco. The venue features an a la carte menu emphasizing seafood and classic French dishes with global influences. It aims to provide flexible fine dining without lengthy tasting menus.
JouJou, located at 65 Division Street in San Francisco's Design District, debuts on Friday, March 6. The restaurant is the first dedicated to French cuisine by chef David Barzelay, who describes it as "a cuisine that is very close to me and that I love." Partners Barzelay and Booth, previously behind Lazy Bear, have shifted from tasting menus to an a la carte format, incorporating what Barzelay calls "big tent French" elements, including nods to New Orleans, French Polynesia, and the French West Indies, while maintaining core French techniques and flavors.
The menu highlights seafood, with a raw bar occupying a quarter of the offerings. Diners can choose oysters by the half-dozen, spot prawns, uni from Mendocino, langoustine, and halved Maine or California spiny lobsters. Composed dishes include halibut in little gem leaves with celtuce and a Dungeness crab Louis XIV with cognac-chantilly Louie dressing. Seafood towers are available in three tiers. A French omelet is enhanced with Dungeness crab, bay shrimp, lobster, and sauce Americaine. Other items feature steamed mussels with saffron, coconut milk, and lime leaf, and escargots on toast with green garlic and snail butter. Soups and salads include vichyssoise with caviar and a tropical fruit salad with spiny lobster "a la Keane."
Entrees comprise six options, such as petrale sole in crayfish cream, black cod a l’ananas with pineapple brulee, Berkshire pork prime rib with apple-horseradish chantilly, and pan-roasted chicken breast with garlic-brown butter sauce. Barzelay emphasizes commitment to technique and quality ingredients, stating, "We’re committed to doing ... things the long way, to do every bit of technique and detail that the food needs, but really minimal on the extraneous stuff."
Pastry chef Yesenia Castañon, formerly of Birdsong, oversees desserts like caneles de Bordeaux, tarte tatin with calvados creme anglaise, chocolate mousse torte with blood orange, baba au rhum with pineapple-rum flambee, and bananas Foster with Gros Michel and demerara flambee.
The space, designed by Jon de la Cruz of DLC-ID and Heidi Liebes of Liebes Architects, evokes "a Belle Époque resort on the French Riviera, but renovated in the sleazy ’70s." It includes a raw bar in Calacatta Viola, cozy booths, a glass-enclosed patio called the Menagerie with a full bar, and the Rose Room for private dining. Booth highlights the focus on old-school hospitality, saying, "I wanted to create a restaurant I want to go out to, and is worth getting dressed up for."
Initial hours are 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays, 4 p.m. to 11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, and 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. Sundays, expanding to Tuesdays on March 17. Reservations are available via Tock.